School report cards on time this year

Tuesday

Oct 30, 2007 at 12:01 AMOct 30, 2007 at 5:43 AM

EMBARGOED UNTIL OCT. 31, WITH OTHER SCHOOL REPORT CARD DATA. EMBARGO SET BY STATE BOARD OF ED.

The just-issued 2007 Illinois school report cards, which provide in-depth looks at public schools and how students fared on standardized tests, differ from the 2006 report cards in one notable way: They're on time.

Adriana Colindres

EMBARGOED UNTIL OCT. 31, WITH OTHER SCHOOL REPORT CARD DATA. EMBARGO SET BY STATE BOARD OF ED.

The just-issued 2007 Illinois school report cards, which provide in-depth looks at public schools and how students fared on standardized tests, differ from the 2006 report cards in one notable way: They're on time.

Because of a series of problems, the 2006 report cards weren't released publicly until March 2007, months past their Oct. 31 due date.

"We do view this information as being important to school districts to use as part of their planning and as part of what they do with students," said State Superintendent of Education Christopher Koch.

"We're making a commitment to try to ensure that this stuff gets out on time, and a lot of folks are happy about that this year. It's something we intend to continue."

Compared with 2006, the 2007 report cards showed a higher percentage of students met or exceeded standards on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, which is given to students in third through eighth grades. The figures were 77 percent in 2006 and 78.7 percent in 2007.

"We were very happy to see that (improvement)," Koch said. "We think that those are good achievements on behalf of our school districts."

The news wasn't as good on the Prairie State Achievement Exam, which is given to students in 11th grade. Just 52.6 percent of the students met or exceeded standards on the PSAE in 2007, compared with 54.3 percent in 2006.

"We're really not sure why they're down," Koch said, adding that those results will be further analyzed over the next few months. "We actually expected to see a slight increase."

Test results from the ISAT and PSAE are used to gauge if schools and school districts are making "adequate yearly progress" as spelled out under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

For 36 school districts and 184 schools, the 2007 test results were good enough to remove them from "improvement status" because they now have made AYP for two consecutive years.

Those schools and districts included:

Farmington Central District 265.

Hillsboro District 3.

Lincoln Elementary District 27.

Litchfield District 12.

Virden District 4.

Beardstown Jr./Sr. High School in Beardstown District 15.

Bluffs Junior High School in Scott-Morgan District 2.

Cuba Senior High School in District 3 Fulton County.

Feitshans Academy in Springfield District 186.

Girard Jr./Sr. High School in Girard District 3.

Harvard Park Elementary School in Springfield District 186.

North Greene Junior High School in North Greene District 3.

Waverly High School in Waverly District 6.

The full list is online at http://www.isbe.net/pdf/school_district_removed_2007.pdf

Other information in the report cards illustrates changes in Illinois schools since 1998. For instance:

*The number of school districts declined - from 898 in 1998 to 871 in 2007.

*Student enrollment in Illinois public schools increased - from 1,951,998 in 1998 to 2,077,856 in 2007.

*Minority enrollment increased to 45.1 percent for 2007 compared to 37.5 percent. The increase is mainly because of increasing numbers of Hispanic students. Minority students are students who are black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American or multiracial/ethnic.

Adriana Colindres can be reached at (217) 782-6292 or Adriana.colindres@sj-r.com

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